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http://hdl.handle.net/1808/1789 on Igbo usage among native speakers. Hornby (1977:5) citing Weinreich (1953) argues that: Many factors may potentially affect the relative status or strength of an individual’s two or more languages, such as age and order of acquisition, usefulness and amount of opportunity for communication, degree of emotional involvement, social function, as well as literary and cultural value. Virtually, all these factors identified by Hornby (1977) as well as those already identified here, seem to have favoured the dominance of English over indigenous Nigerian languages. It is pertinent to ask at this juncture whether multilingualism is an asset or not in Nigeria. That is, the data before us simply represents the predicament of a major indigenous language in Nigeria, a consequence of the multiplicity of indigenous languages in Nigeria coupled with the incontrovertible status of English as the only official language in Nigeria. The setbacks suffered by the Yoruba-English bilinguals as evident in the foregoing can only be captured with the term semilingualism—this is a situation whereby competence in both languages will not fully develop. We care to ask: why do the respondents code-mix even when speaking Yoruba? The truth is that those bilinguals can no longer express themselves adequately in Yoruba. What a shame! The language of a society is expected to be adequately sufficient and capable of describing every linguistic function within the context of such a society. A language must be capable of meeting the domestic, social, interactional and commercial needs of its society without any form of shortcomings. Any language that cannot fulfill these obligations is not worthy to be employed as the language of interaction at any level of the community’s existence. Thus, these respondents themselves are to blame for code-mixing. It is not as if the language itself is deficient in anyway. Code-mixing as evident in this data is a measure of the respondents’ proficiency and efficiency in their two languages. Indeed, they are no longer here nor there. At this juncture Fakuade (2004: 19—20) becomes adequate: Nigeria is an English – speaking nation, and the basic Federal policy on education is to recognize the need to prepare Nigerian children/students to function successfully in an English speaking nation. This policy ranks English language the only medium through which Nigerian children can be educated. The implementation, as today, has produced, to some extent, mediocre English performance while ignoring home language skills. 100
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/1789 Indeed, how else do we explain the declining performance of Nigerian youths in the School Certificate Examination every year in spite of the fact that a credit pass in English is required for admission to any higher institution in Nigeria? Table 10 below presents statistics of performance in the school certificate examination, which indicates an average failure rate of about 64.3% per year between 1995 and 1999. Table 10: Secondary School Certificate Examination in Nigeria Performance in English in Percentages Year Credit & Ordinary Fail Total above 1995 12.4 27.7 59.9 100 1996 11.33 24.03 64.62 99.98 1997 6.54 26.77 66.67 99.98 1998 8.47 21.49 65.53 95.49 1999 9.71 22.59 64.91 97.21 (Source: West African Examinations Council, 1997; 1999 in Bamgbose 2006) Bambgose (2006:22-24) explains: Statistics collected for the years 1995 to 1999 show not only a massive failure in English, they also show declining performance in the five years. Since at least a Credit in English is required for admission to universities, colleges and polytechnics, only an average of about 9.7% of all students per year may be said to have done well in English to merit admission. The rest either have an ordinary pass or an outright fail. Failure rate is an average of about 64.3% every year and, allowing for incomplete or unavailable results in 1998 and 1999, the failure rate appears to get worse from year to year . . . Given that English is the medium of instruction for other subjects, it is not surprising that performance in other subjects is almost equally as bad . . . Should we, like an official, who shall remain nameless, ostrich-like seek refuge in the excuse that it is due to an “overloaded curriculum” or should we rather call a spade a spade and put the blame where it truly belongs: that lack of competence in English affects performance in all subjects taught through the medium of English? As already evident in this paper, the spread of English language, in Nigeria is correlated with the spread of Christianity and Western Education. After independence, English remained a colonial legacy, graduating from its use as 101
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